Hit-man Scam E-Mail Targeting Netizens of Montgomery (USA)

A hoax electronic mail is making the rounds in Montgomery County (Maryland, USA) as it tries to threaten recipients in case they refuse to follow the sender's commands.

Said the Sheriff's Office, complaints have been coming into the Office of Montgomery County Sheriff from residents saying they received e-mails are telling them that they'd been chosen for murder. Ultimatewoodlands.com reported this on June 9, 2010.

The threat e-mails apparently from the hit-man, however, tell the recipients that they will be left free if they willingly send the money as demanded.

Notably, security analysts state that these hoax electronic mails may differ in their content and style. Also, there may be spelling mistakes and incorrect English, but the main intention of the senders of the e-mail remains same in all the instances.

Moreover, the analysts note that although no reports have come in about loss of cash or about actual execution of an attack, yet these kinds of frauds involving money extortion can prove threatening.

They point out that the first time such scam message emerged was during December 2006 and that it poses as a message from a paid killer. However, the message actually represents a mass spamming tactic seeking to steal personal information of the recipient.

Security experts and FBI stated that as these are spam mails sent to numerous accounts and answering them only indicates to senders that have hit an active account. Furthermore, it also increases the threat, according to them.

Meanwhile, the scam hasn't attacked US citizens for the first time. During February 2008, the FBI reported of receiving a large number of complaints from e-mail operators at Idaho, Wyoming and Utah. Before that, in January 2008, the Hit-man fraud struck netizens of Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Washington too, suggesting its active nature.

Ultimately, the scammers appear to be reverting to their conventional and general tricks of defrauding unwitting people. And just as the FBI in America, Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Canada is also repeatedly alerting the general public about the same threat e-mail ever-since it reportedly targeted the Shuswap (British Columbia, Canada) residents during early June 2010.